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Friday, July 18, 2008

France: Prejudice against Older Workers May Create Business Opportunities

According to a brief note in The Economist, a French employment agency (Experconnect) is attempting to take advantage of the French youth culture to place place retired people in work opportunities.

France has a poor record when it comes to keeping older people in the workforce. The retirement age is 60, not 65 as in most developed countries. In 2005 only 37.8% of people aged 55-64 had jobs, versus 56.8% in Britain and 44.9% in Germany. The main reason is that in the 1980s, when there was high unemployment, the government promoted early retirement. That entrenched the idea that older workers were less productive, says Caroline Young, Experconnect’s founder.

Unlike most employment agencies, however, Experconnect keeps its workers on its own books, so they can carry on drawing their pensions. Accordingly, they tend to work part-time on one-off projects.